[The revival of Linnean ideas in nineteenth-century France]. / Le renouveau de la pensée linnéenne en France au XIXe siècle.

During the first half of the 19th century, and notably during the Restoration, many French naturalists gathered into some new natural history Societies, called Linnean Societies. They tried to remove the chaos of the zoological and botanical nomenclature, and decided to fight against the generalization of the natural method. They worshipped Linnaeus' memory, his artificial system of classification of plants and animals, and his binomial nomenclature. This worshipping, ignored by the official scientific institution, opened up the way to an international critical approach aiming at the stabilization and universalization of zoological, botanical and geological nomenclatures. At the end of the century this approach caused the writing of the International codes of nomenclature currently in use today. The starting points of these codes were Linnaeus' 10th edition of Systema naturae (1758), 1st edition of Species plantarum (1753) and 5th edition of Genera plantarum (1754).

Anti-acetylcholine antibodies and first immunocytochemical application in insect brain.

A specific immunological approach was developed to enable acetylcholine (ACh) to be visualized in biological tissues. A variety of ACh-like immunogens were synthesized, and injected into rabbits. Antibody specificity was tested using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The most immunoreactive ACh derivative was found to be choline-glutaryl-lysine. A mixture of allyl alcohol and formaldehyde was found to be the best fixative of ACh in tissues. The specificity of this antibody recognition was tested in vitro and in immunochemistry. There was excellent agreement between the in vitro results and the ACh staining. Moreover, visualization using these anti-ACh antibodies appeared identical to the results using anti-choline acetyltransferase antibodies.

Immunohistochemical localization of dopamine in the brain of the insect Locusta migratoria migratorioides in comparison with the catecholamine distribution determined by the histofluorescence technique.

As part of a follow-up study to our previous investigation of the catecholaminergic neurosecretory cells in the brain of adult female locusts (Locusta migratoria migratorioides) by means of the formaldehyde-induced fluorescence method, we have attempted to specify the identity of the amines present in these cells by an immunohistological technique. Using a recently developed anti-dopamine serum, we have demonstrated that the majority of the catecholaminergic median neurosecretory cells contain dopamine. Moreover, dopamine is present in some cell bodies of other zones of the brain, i.e. the median subocellar neurosecretory cells, perikarya in external areas of the protocerebrum, below the calyces, around the pedunculus, in the optic lobes (between the lobula and the medulla, between the medulla and the lamina), and in external zones of the tritocerebrum. Among the structured neuropils, which were particularly fluorescent in the formaldehyde-induced fluorescence method, only the pedunculus, the posterior part of the central body, the external zones of the alpha- and beta lobes and the proximal part of the lamina contain little dopamine.